The Autobiography

Revised and updated

10^th August 2006    4 days after Brands Hatch

James Toseland is the youngest ever World Superbike Champion and, with the world at his feet, is quickly becoming a sporting phenomenon. He has kicked off his 2006 title chase in dramatic style.  After 12 races, Toseland is currently in 3^rd position, having been on the podium 6 times already! 1win, twice in second place, three times in third place.

Toseland scored his first win in the Winston Ten Kate Honda team at the very first attempt, after a dramatic final lap. The 2004 World Champion capitalized on a crash between likely winners Haga and Kagayama, and resisted pressure from Bayliss to take the win.

A story of speed, talent, tragedy, and an overwhelming will to succeed.

Let's be honest, few 25-year-olds could fill a book about their lives. Autobiographies are for older people – with years of experiences and adventures to relate. James Toseland is different. Very different.

World Superbike Champion 2004

Toseland was a child from a Sheffield working class family, who was raised in a caravan then a council house by a single parent. He began to play the piano when he was just six and had professional tuition from age eight to 16. He achieved grade 6 – not quite enough to guarantee a place at the College of Music in London... His mother's fiancé, Ken, became Toseland's father figure - a superb pianist and a motorcycle fanatic. He took James under his wing and bought him his first motorbike.

However, while James was burning up this bike on old slag heaps his mother was struggling to make ends meet, and although James and Ken got on well, his mother and Ken began to argue. As Toseland says in the book "The shouting was violent, I used to put a pillow over my head to shut out the yelling and the hurt the rows caused me to suffer."

Troubled childhood

As James’ interest in motorbikes grew, Ken continued to provide support – taking him to races all across the country. Early competition in trials and motocross brought an impressive haul of trophies and awards before James set his sights on a career in road racing. Meanwhile, his mother had become frail and depressed. At the age of 13, James made the difficult decision to drop his ties with the only father he had known, to support his mother. Tragedy struck shortly afterwards when Ken committed suicide.

Using racing as an escape from his difficult home life, Toseland quickly worked his way up through the ranks of 125cc racing and into Supersport, winning the CB500 Cup on the way. His first season in British Supersport, at the age of 16, resulted in third place overall.

In 1998, James was chosen by Castrol Honda to ride the CBR600 in the World Supersport Championship. Never one to turn down a challenge, in the next two seasons James finished 18th and 11th overall before returning to Britain to ride in the 2000 British Superbike Championship. Despite missing almost half the season through injury, James finished 12th overall and was snapped up by GSE Racing for their World Superbike campaign. An impressive thirteenth place in the 2001 championship, including 6th at Brands Hatch, was enough to confirm the rider as a permanent fixture on the WSBK grid.

In just his second year in WSBK in 2002, he became a regular top six finisher and scored his first-ever podium finish at Assen, while in 2003 he ended Hodgson’s winning streak with an impressive win at Oschersleben and then earned his first pole position in the final round at Magny-Cours.                                                                             

James Toseland raised a few eyebrows in 2004 when he became the youngest-ever winner of the World Superbike Championship. Following in the footsteps of Carl ‘The King’ Fogarty and fellow Brit, Neil Hodgson, the 24 year-old from Sheffield had an extraordinary end to the season, with two wins and three seconds in the last six races, to lift the title in the final round at Magny-Cours.

Now with Honda

In 2005, James Toseland came 4^th overall in the World Superbike Championship. He has since been signed by rival team Winston Ten Kate Honda, replacing Vermeulen, where he rides alongside Australian Karl Muggeridge.

Toseland currently sits 3rd overall in the 2006 Championship, on 157 points, just 3 behind Haga in second.

As with his personal life, Toseland's racing career has been full of incidents. He has undergone nine operations as a result of spectacular crashes and a collision in Monza, Italy, left James seriously injured and his Honda team-mate dead. This season James suffered a crash in the opening race, however, he remains in contention for this year’s title.

Desire to win

“We’ve lost a lot of points over the past two races, but we’re not going to give up. With the right technical support we can easily return to winning form and catch up with the leaders in the points table... I really want to win!” James Toseland

Local hopes are behind James Toseland to impress at Brands hatch on 6^th August. After moving from Ducati to Honda, Toseland has proved to his doubters that the 2004 title was not a fluke with some superb performances, and will be fired up to perform on home ground.

James Toseland still plays the piano – to wind down after races. He plays about 20 gigs a year, can frequently be seen supporting a Robbie Williams tribute band, and more recently performed with the legendary Jools Holland.

Ted Macauley, helping to write Toseland’s story, was the Daily Mirror’s Sports Feature Writer for 35 years specialising in Formula One and Grand Prix Motorbike Racing. He was Mike Hailwood’s manager and has written Bobby Charlton’s international football books and, more recently, Grand Prix Men by Andre Deutsch.